Nebraska Medicine discloses data breach by former employee

Nebraska Medicine has released a statement Tuesday regarding a data breach that was discovered in early October.

Nebraska Medicine sent a letter to patients whose medical information was accessed. They discovered the breach during an audit of their medical record system and realized an employee had accessed records outside of the employee’s job responsibility sometime between July 11 and Oct. 1. The employee was terminated immediately.

The letter states that demographic information such as name, birthdate, address, medical record number, Social Security number, and driver’s license number, clinical information, lab imagery, and notes from the physician was possibly viewed.

According to a statement Nebraska Medicine provided to 6 News: “Once Nebraska Medicine became aware of the incident, our staff took action to investigate, prevent further improper access, and to notify affected patients. We have no reason to believe the information accessed has been or will be misused.

"In cases where the Social Security number or driver’s license was accessible, we are offering credit monitoring for a full year, at no cost to the affected patients."

Those with questions were instructed to call 1-844-416-6280; the toll-free number will be answered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Text from some notification letters included the following statements: